3 Fun facts on Philadelphia Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay

Wait! Was the plan for the Philadelphia Eagles to field a younger team or to construct a younger coaching staff? The final Friday of 2021’s first month was an eventful one as the Birds introduced their new head coach, Nick Sirianni and, later that night, announced their replacement for former special teams coach Dave Fipp. According to a nice write-up by Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro on the official team website, Coach Sirianni and company are going with Michael Clay to fill the void.

For those of you who are drawing a blank, don’t beat yourselves up too much. Consider this your official briefing.

Okay Philadelphia Eagles fans, let’s have some fun. Here are three fun facts.

A quick dive allowed our staff at ITI to drum up a few interesting tidbits about the recently-departed Dave Fipp. Here are three highlights. Forgive us if this is a refresher.

1. He’s actually a former student of another Eagles head coach and a familiar face.

Clay won’t have to be given the full tour of the NovaCare Complex. He’s been here before as an assistant on former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly‘s staff in 2014 and 2015. As a collegiate athlete, he also cut his teeth under Kelly with the Oregon Ducks before going undrafted in 2013’s NFL Draft.

He earned Second-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2012 before joining the Miami Dolphins’ training camp in 2013. He was released during final roster cuts.

2. Let’s talk about the resume.

In keeping with his familiarity with the Eagles’ organization, here’s the resume. Clay served as a defensive quality control coach in 2014 before being promoted to the assistant special teams coaching chair in 2015.

When Kelly left in 2016, Clay followed, accepting the role of being the San Francisco 49ers assistant special teams coach in 2016. Kelly was replaced in 2017 by Kyle Shanahan, but Clay was retained. He served as the Niners’ assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2017 and earned the assistant special teams coaching job in 2018. He had been with the organization ever since. That is until Philly gave him the call this week.

3. We mentioned the fact that this is a young staff right?

As mentioned earlier, Philadelphia Eagles fans can only hope that they dedicate their efforts to finding young prospects to rebuild this team. When and if they do, they’ll be led by a young coaching staff, with the exception of Jeff Stoutland, their offensive line coach.

Clay is now officially the youngest coordinator in the NFL at 29 years of age. He won’t turn 30 years old until August. Things continue to get more and more interesting in the City of Brotherly Love.